How to optimize your day.
Next Big Idea Club
Where thought leaders converge, where ideas transform into action, and where books become a gateway to a brighter future
The Next Big Idea Daily newsletter (SUBSCRIBE) is written by me, Michael Kovnat , and gathers insights from today’s leading non-fiction authors. It’s a companion to our Next Big Idea Daily podcast, available on Apple or Spotify .
Once in a while, a book comes along that truly changes the culture -- sparking conversation, impacting the way kids are taught, and changing how businesses work. Carole Dweck's Mindset is such a book. Angela Duckworth 's Grit is another. Our curator Malcolm Gladwell arguably has written a couple of books that fit the bill.
But before any of these, there was 1995's Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman . The book was an early, sustained critique of IQ's status as an important measure of success, and identified an entire set of emotional skills that could be taught and measured -- an EQ that might be a more reliable predictor of lifetime achievement and happiness.
While Daniel had not originated the idea of emotional intelligence, he was in a great position to popularize it. A Harvard-trained psychologist and lecturer, he spent more than a decade as a science reporter for the New York Times, earning two Pulitzer Prize nominations in the process. When Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ came out, the book spent more than a year and a half on the bestseller list, was translated into 40 languages, and never went out of print. Daniel's writing has had an impact on how educators teach and employers hire, and its insights remain relevant now, nearly 30 years after its publication.
But Daniel has not stayed still. He's written more than a dozen books since then, expanding on the idea of emotional intelligence and delving into related topics like social intelligence, leadership, and focus. Now, with co-author and fellow psychologist Cary Cherniss , he's turned his attention to the question of optimal performance, of what science tells us about how we can achieve the state we sometimes call "firing on all cylinders."
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Based on studies of how high-performers structure their ordinary days, Daniel and Cary offer practical tips on how to use your emotional intelligence to achieve your ideal cognitive state -- connected, productive, and happy.
Hear Daniel explain how to be your best self:
We heard a lot of other big ideas this week as well, including:
I hope listening to these ideas and others you can find on the Next Big Idea app becomes a regular habit for you, and helps contribute to your optimal day.